promises to prove of no little value as a work of reference. We have also been impressed with the large number of excellent illustrations with which the text is supplied, and are sure that practitioners will appreciate this indispensable feature. The most noteworthy and valuable feature of this book is, however, the special attention that seems to have been accorded operative technique. We are quite glad to observe that the section devoted to the diseases of the nose and throat is rich in these details, for no one realizes so fully as the fin de siecle rhino-laryngologist the aid rendered by operative procedures in the treatment of the disorders of these regions.

A Textbook on Practical Obstetrics. By Egbert H. Grandin, M.D., Gynecologist to the Columbus Hospital; Consulting Gynecologist to the French Hospital; late Consulting Obstetrician and Obstetric Surgeon of the New York Maternity Hospital; Fellow of the American Gynecological Society; etc. With the collaboration of George W. Jarman, M.D., Gynecologist to the Cancer Hospital; Instructor in Gynecology in the Medical Department of the Columbia University; late Obstetric Surgeon of the New York Maternity Hospital; Fellow of the American Gynecological Society; etc. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Illustrated with 64 full-page photographic plates and 86 illustrations in the text. 6x9 inches. Pages xiv-461. Extra cloth, $4 net; sheep, $4.75 net. The F. A. Davis Co., Publishers, 1914-16 Cherry street, Philadelphia.

We venture to say that no textbook on obstetrics has, in so short a time, been accorded the favorable reception that has been accorded Grandin and Jarman's work. Indeed, it is too well known to require extended notice. A most excellent feature, and a most essential one, is the series of sixty-four full-page photographic plates illustrating this book.

net.

Retinoscopy (or Shadow Test) in the Determination of Refraction at One Meter Distance with the Plane Mirror. By James Thorington, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Diseases of the Eye in the Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates in Medicine; etc., etc. Third edition, revised and enlarged. 43 illustrations, 12 of which are colors. Price, $1 P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1012 Walnut street, Philadelphia, Pa. The peculiar interest that this little book has possessed for oculists is manifested in the exhaustion of two editions in as many successive years. In endeavoring to make the book more worthy of the favor with which it has been received, and for a clearer understanding of the subject, some few changes in phraseology have been made, and five additional illustrations incorporated in the present edition.

Progressive Medicine. A Quarterly Digest of Advances, Discoveries, and Improvements in the Medical and Surgical Sciences. Edited by Hobart Amory Hare, M.D., Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Octavo, handsomely bound in cloth, 490 pages, 28 illustrations and 3 colored plates. Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia and New York.

There are two chief claims that this new work is enabled to make for the patronage of the medical profession-frequency of issue and comparative cheapness. Being issued at intervals of three months instead of annually, will insure the rapid diffusion of knowledge, and the yearly price for the set of four volumes, $10, should place it within the reach of all. The first volume of the first series is well prepared. In it the surgery of the head, neck and chest, diseases of children, pathology, infectious diseases, including croupous pneumonia, laryn

gology and rhinology, otology, are considered. The articles are carefully and well prepared, and the editor, Professor Hare, is to be congratulated upon his success in securing the collaboration of men of distinctive personnel in aiding him in preparing this volume. Consisting of nearly 500 pages, and illustrated with engravings and colored plates, the book has claims to typographical merit. From a literary standpoint alone the venture deserves, and no doubt will have, unqualified success.

The Ready-Reference Handbook of Diseases of the Skin. By George Thomas Jackson, M.D., Professor of Dermatology, Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary and in the Medical Department of the University of Vermont; Chief of Clinic and Instructor in Dermatology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. New (third) edition. In one 12mo. volume of 638 pages, with 75 illustrations and a colored plate. Cloth, $2.50 net. Lea Bros. & Co., Philadelphia and New York.

We have had occasion to review previous editions of this praiseworthy volume, and now most heartily accord reception to the third edition. That the work is meritorious is testified by the early exhaustion of two editions and the demand for a third. In this new edition all dermatological advances made since the appearance of the second edition are fully presented, and much new matter and several illustrations have been added. Students will find this book well adapted to their needs, and general practitioners will find herein contained just the amount of dermatological knowledge that they may seek.

Diseases of the Ear, Nose and Throat and Their Accessory Cavities. By Seth Scott Bishop, M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Professor of Diseases of the Nose, Throat and Ear in the Illinois Medical College; Professor in the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital; Surgeon to the PostGraduate Hospital; one of the Editors of the Laryngoscope; etc. Second edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged. Illustrated with 94 chromo-lithographs and 215 half-tone and photo-engravings. 6x9 inches. Pages xix-554. Extra cloth, $4 net; sheep or half Russia, $5 net. The F. A. Davis Co., Publishers, 1914-16 Cherry street, Philadelphia.

On the appearance of the first edition of this book, about a year ago, our criticism was not altogether favorable, but the present edition shows such careful revision and adaptation to the requirements of students and practitioners that we must now turn from condemnation to praise. We are glad to note the author's efforts at improving his work, and can now, with very little reservation, endorse it as a suitable textbook.

A Handbook of Obstetric Nursing, for Nurses, Students, and Mothers. Comprising the Course of Instruction in Obstetric Nursing given to the Pupils of the Training School for Nurses Connected with the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia. By Anna M. Fullerton, M.D., Obstetrician, Gynecologist, and Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, and formerly Physician-in-Charge and Superintendent of its Nurse School; etc. Fifth edition, illustrated. Price $1. P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1012 Walnut street, Philadelphia, Pa.

The rôle of the nurse in the lying-in chamber is in this book clearly and cleverly presented. Nurses, students, and mothers will profit by its careful reading.

All life has existed since the dawn of creation.

The imperfection of human wisdom in failing to discern the infinitude of creation does not in any wise refute the above statement. The darkness of ignorance and superstition has, in all ages, militated against scientific progress, and has hindered the search for truth. Self-conceit has ever stood as a wall of opposition to advancement, and has refused to be divorced from error, because that would have implied retraction of past beliefs, and likewise demanded homage to the discoverer of a new fact, to both of which human nature. enters her protest.

Such a spirit, even though a truth be established beyond question, will hound the new way with all manner of persecution, with cries of "crank," "fad," "hobby," etc. Yet, despite these obstructions, new light dispels the darkness, for "truth crushed to earth will rise again." Medicine has been no exception to this prevailing custom of the world. In the early centuries disease was supposed to have been the result of offending some one of the deities, and the sick were punished with exorcism, imprisonment or abandonment. Even

* Read before Med. Society of the State of Tenn., at Nashville, April 11, 1899. VOL. XIX-13 193

at the beginning of the Christian era disease was thought to have been sent as a punishment for sin. Still later, even within our own recollection, many diseases were attributed to "catching cold," "biliousness," "teething," worms," "congestion," "child-bed," or "nervousness."

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In surgery suppurative conditions were regarded as inevitable, and the presence of what was called "laudable pus" hailed as a good omen. The suppuration, of course, was supposed to have been the immediate result of decomposing tissue, and had its primary origin within the wound.

The doctrine of the spontaneous generation of parasites as a product of decomposing substances and of certain diseased conditions held a well nigh universal sway until within the latter half of the present century. Here and there an investigator arose in opposition to this theory, but little attention was paid him until such men as Pasteur, Pollander, Davaine, Lister, Tyndall, Koch, Klebs, Virchow, and a host of others, established beyond question the fallacy of such a doctrine. And there is not today a scientist of any note who does not add emphasis to the ancient declaration" That in six days God created the heavens and the earth, and all that in them is,” and the theory of biogenesis is now universally accepted.

Bacteriology is now one of the institutes of medicine, and its study is at once essential and fundamental. Etiology cannot be understood apart from it.

The microscope reveals the presence of germs of disease in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the food we eat, in the earth on which we tread, on the clothes we wear, and the beds on which we repose, and possibly in the medicines we dispense. Hence the germs of disease, and its conqueror, death, have been sown by an invisible hand broadcast throughout the universe.

Within the past two decades discoveries have been made in rapid succession of new varieties of bacilli, and we seem to stand on the threshold of the mystic unseen, which, by aid of a powerful lens, is to reveal a microorganism as the primal cause of most diseases, and medicine shall be no longer a blind experiment, but a rational and scientific application of remedies to a well-known cause of disease.

Why some persons are apparently able to resist certain diseases but are peculiarly liable to others, and why, under other circumstances, this resistance or liability may be changed, and many other questions of a similar nature, may be considered under the general terms-immunity and susceptibility.

It is known that there are two leading theories in regard to the maintenance of immunity, namely, phagocytosis and the humoral theory. Both these have strong advocates, and each produces good arguments in support of their respective positions. The truth probably lies in a combination of the two forces, or at any rate they must act in concert, and assuming this to be true, we shall nominate this means of defense normal vital resistance.

This principle of defense against the encroachment of pathogenic bacteria may be modified by several factors, a few of which we will notice: First, heredity. This implies that peculiar immunity from, or susceptibility to, disease, which is known to obtain in families. What constitutes this heritage? The answer comes from a study of those units called cells, of which the body is composed. Each cell is perfect within itself, having the functions of assimilation, growth, sensibility and means of defense against the encroachment of disease germs. The perfection of life then depends on the perfect balance and normal activity of these cells. Natural immunity must then depend on the perfect construction and normal activity of these primal seats of vitality. No one denies that we inherit physical conformation, mental and even moral traits, from our ancestry, and it is equally obvious that a peculiarity of cell structure is hereditary. Indeed, in its final analysis this latter is the thing which constitutes heredity, for it is but the aggregation and arrangement of cells that constitutes the human body. Now, if the cells of our ancestry were of such a character as to resist the inroads of the bacteria of any special disease, it is perfectly logical that the same power of resistance would be transmitted to the offspring. If, on the other hand, that natural immunity had been destroyed, either by disease or hereditary transmission on the part of the parent, this loss of immunity and consequent susceptibility would, in obedience to natural laws, de